Following the lives of convicted felons is not typically the way I spend my evenings. I have never been a true-crime fan, so when the sudden desire came to watch Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons, it caught me by surprise. It is not a true-crime series per se, but the people it features have indeed committed true crimes.
The show follows UK journalist Raphael Rowe as he visits prisons around the world and spends a week living with the inmates. While the episode on Cyprus – where the prison was branded as very comfortable for inmates – got a lot of airtime on the island, there are many others featured too. If you throw any ordinary person in these places marked as the ‘toughest in the world’, it would be difficult to imagine that they would cope well. But for Rowe, it is a different story. He spent 12 whole years behind bars in the UK for a murder he didn’t commit and having had that experience definitely gives him an edge.
I also can’t imagine wanting to ever go back to such a setting but Rowe’s perspective adds an extra dimension to the show – which is what hooked me – as he knows what questions to ask, what behaviours to look out for and what prison lingo means. Even if it is in another language in another country.
Rowe was not the original presenter for the show. When it aired on Channel 5 Irish journalist Paul Connolly presented the series. The presenter switched when Netflix picked up the show.
Throughout the seven seasons of the show, with the most recent having dropped in September, he experiences life inside 19 global prisons. His interaction and co-living with the prisoners offer their perspective of life, regret, gangs and violence, yet the show also features the perspectives of the guards and directors.
Many prisons have a different design and layout, diverse hierarchy and rehabilitation systems and some of these prisons appear much worse than the Nicosia one (season 6, episode 2). Some episodes are sad to watch, equally because no real reformation takes place and because a deep sense of remorse hits. While prison-themed TV shows are popular worldwide, this one is a true glance at life in prison. With a fair dose of romance, drugs and gangs.
